All Dogs Go To Heaven 3
by wildrumpusstart
Summary: Charlie takes a trip back to New Orleans to see if Anne Marie is still alive, he arrives to find her deceased and that she has a granddaughter named Pippa (Pip or Pippi) who is the spitting image of Anne Marie. He also learns that Pippa has inherited Anne Marie's gift and he learns really quickly what it's like trying to protect a teenager.
1. Chapter 1 A Long Journey

**Chapter 1:**

**A Long Journey**

**_Pippa_**

My name is Pippa, or Pip or Pippi, Valli. I'm 16 years old and I live in New Orleans in an old car junkyard that's been abandoned for 5 years. I live in the grey minivan on four cinderblocks in the middle of the yard. Inside I had a solar lamp, a sleeping bag with a pillow, an acoustic guitar, a picture of my parents and grandmother, a plastic bag of clothes, a skateboard and stacks of books in the front seats and the key in the ignition so I can use the radio. The junkyard was up and running for two years since the 30's and was only running for one year back then. It had to shut down because of the economic crisis, when it was found and running again it was inhabited by rats and dogs that were chased out, or taken to the shelter. I sought refuge here because my grandmother passed away two years ago and my parents died because of a drunk driver two months after, I refused to go to a foster home because that just meant that no person wants a teenager, so I've been fending for myself since then.

I mostly resemble my grandmother when she was young, black hair, blue eyes, and the natural rouge on my cheeks; my hair is long and goes down to my hips and my side swept bangs covered my left eye. I mostly wore all black, not because I'm Goth, but because I strive to blend in to the crowd. I want to blend in because I don't want people finding out where I am to take me away. I want to stay in New Orleans because I grew up here and if they took me away, I'd just run back here.

One day, after I got up and went through the hole in the chain link fence, and skateboarded to my bus stop in front of the junkyard, I noticed two dogs across the street and one…a german shepherd, was staring at me intently. Another dog wishing she wasn't there sat next to him.

'_Please don't start talking to me! Please don't start talking to me!_ _Please don't start talking to me! _Please_ don't start talking to me!_' I thought to myself. Oh, did I mention I inherited my grandmother's gift to talk to animals? I always have gotten down on my knees and cried, 'WHY ME?!' Being in high school with this gift is no easy task to conceal when there's a bird outside the window saying repeatedly, "Seeds, seeds, need seeds need seeds!"

It's unbearable, to the point where I yell, "_QUIET!_" out loud. And I get a detention, again, for disrupting class. My grandmother told me the story when I was little how she was saved by a german shepherd dog named Charlie and he helped her get adopted and he told her he was going on a trip. I think what he was really saying was he was dead, because from what Granma told me he could never have survived that ship sinking. I have always been in touch with my spiritual side, I go to church every Sunday, visit my Granma's and parent's gravesites and Granma's old house where she used to live and that is now completely vacant and pray every night, plus I believe in reincarnation, spirits and ghosts. This has been my life for the past two years. A life alone has been a long journey, no family, no friends, no real place to call home, but I've quickly gotten used to it.

The bus came around the corner and as soon as it stopped, I got on. The bus took me to the New Orleans high school. I've also had late hour study habits and am a straight-A student, though it makes my eyes sore and makes me sleep in. When I sleep in I have to skateboard 5 blocks to the school and I'll get a tardy, so that's why I got a watch with an alarm on it. After school, I skateboard down the road to a seafood restaurant that pays pretty well, but the one thing I'm ambitious for is music. I'm a singer, I sing for extra money on Bourbon Street as well on weekends. I'm saving money to go to a music school in California so I can possibly get a record deal. But on weekdays after my shift I go to the skate park and tear up the concrete. And after all that, I come home and study, write new songs, make repairs and improvements on my board, and just plain try to find something to do. In fact, sometimes I'll take my parent's old motorboat down at the dock and ride through the bayou and stargaze. But what happened today after my shift…..I was _not_ prepared for.


	2. Chapter 2 Seeing What I Left Behind

**Chapter 2:**

**Seeing What I Left Behind**

**_Charlie_**

Seeing the streets I used to own again feels a little eerie, the streets I owned in 19**_39. _**How many dogs do you know that can say that? But the reason I'm back in New Orleans with Sasha is a very personal reason, I want to check on Anne Marie. I know she's probably about 100 now, but, I think she'll remember me and I'll be able to see her kids and grandkids. I asked David to look her up, and informing him where I was going; he said that she was still in New Orleans, adopted Anne Marie Sullivan, married Anne Marie Sullivan Valli and had only one son who had a daughter. I bolted out of the room excitedly to plan my trip out before he could say anything else. I decided to take Sasha with me because I didn't have Itchy to accompany me.

We hitched on semi-trucks after David and the others left for their month long trip to Germany and once in Louisiana, I was on edge. Sasha tried to calm me down when we entered the New Orleans city limits, "Charlie, you're going to give us away-just settle down."

"Alright, alright – you're right, I just need to relax."

When we got off, we began our search. It was near the junkyard where I used to live with Itchy in the 30's that I saw her…..she was wearing all black, a black hoodie, black pants and white-ish sneakers and was the spitting image of Anne Marie and I thought it _was_ her. The ultimate test would be to talk to her and see if she responds, but before I could do that she got on the school bus and left. I decided to wait there until she came back, Sasha wanted to be my voice of reason, "How are you sure it's her?"

"I just know it."

Then she came skating in and I could not stop myself, "Anne Marie?"

She didn't hear me at first, because a car went by, so I called again, "Anne Marie!"

Her head whipped up, eyes widened and she ran away.

"No! Wait! Squeaker!"

"Charlie, it's not her!"

I didn't feel like arguing with her, but I ran after this girl that looked like the charming little girl that I once knew.

I chased her down an alleyway and she was trying to get away from me on skateboard so she was going faster.

"Wait! Stop! I just wanna talk to you!" I called after her.

"Charlie, will you just forget it?"

"No, I told Anne Marie that she'd see me again"

I saw her flip up her board and bend through a hole in the chain link fence and dart towards the center of the junkyard. New model cars and cars that I recognized from when I lived there scattered the yard. I went through the hole, Sasha followed and we went after her. We tracked her down to a grey van that stood on 4 cinder blocks; we hid behind a car nearby to observe. She slid the door open, crawled in and opened a book. She _lives_ here? The thought disturbed me…how long was she living like this? Why is she living like this? Does anyone else know about this?

I approached and cleared my throat, she looked up and went to shut the door but I stopped her, "Wait, just hear me out okay?"

"What do you want from me? It's enough that I have to live with this…this…_curse_!"

"What is your name?" I asked, ignoring what she said.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because if you're not Anne Marie Sullivan….who are you?"

She sat relaxed on the edge of the van and responded, "Pippa Susan Valli. Anne Marie Sullivan was my grandmother."

"Was? What do you mean by was?"

Then it struck me like a lightning bolt, No….she can't be…..

"She passed away 2 years ago," Pippa answered grimly.

Sasha came up to ask the obvious because I couldn't think with the thought of Anne Marie dead.

"Where are your parents?"

"They died two months after my grandmother."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

I finally got my thoughts together, "You're living like this and you're _how_ old?"

"16."

"Why?"

"I refuse to go to a foster home."

"Again, why?"

"Because they don't want to adopt teenagers, they get paid to take me in by the government. And originally I was going to a family in Kentucky, but I didn't want to leave New Orleans. So, I took matters into my own hands and cut myself off; so far it's working."

It unsettled me that she was living like this.

"Now it's my turn, who are you and how do you know my grandmother?"

"She never mentioned me?"

She paused to think, then realized who I was…yes, Anne Marie mentioned me.


	3. Chapter 3 The Way Things Are

**Chapter 3:**

**The Way Things Are**

**_Pippa_**

I've never been more honest with anyone than with them. They were like my…._dog_…parents! I think that's the correct terminology. They came because they were looking out for me; especially the german shepherd – who I soon realized was Granma's dog Charlie. The one who…._died_!

"Wait, if _you're_ who I think you are, shouldn't you be – "

"Let me explain and promise to believe everything I'm about to tell you," he reasoned.

I agreed and he began with how he got attached to my Granma, how he died and came back and I tried my very best to understand all of it. I tried to make sense of it all, how he was allowed to come _back_ mostly. It took me a minute to gather that he was born in _1937_. When he finished telling his story, a lot ran through my head, but I believed him. For some reason, I believed every word of it. His story described stories in the bible from Genesis to the New Testament, the fallen, the redemption and the risen. He went into heaven because, like Jesus, he sacrificed himself to save the innocent- in his case, Granma. How he came back surprised me, he came back as an angel to retrieve a horn that enables dogs to get into heaven and met Sasha and her owner David.

After he finished, I couldn't contain myself, I was shaking. I opened my mouth to scream but he quickly said, "Please don't freak out!"

I then said attempting to contain how freaked out I was by the situation, "I'm not freaking out, who's freaking out? Not me! Nope!"


End file.
